a pseudo-rant on johto
So looking at the results of this poll, it's pretty darn clear Johto is REALLY popular. And that kind of baffled me.
I mean, is it because HG/SS is the new game? Is it because of nostalgia? Is it because it's popular to hate Gen III and, to a lesser extent, Gen IV? And now you might be thinking "Why isn't he saying 'Is it because it's the best?'" Well, I'll tell you why: It's... not. The routes are downright miniscule, very few places are memorable (though that's an opinion, I suppose), especially compared to Kanto or Hoenn as well as a good portion of Sinnoh, the Pokemon distribution is downright awful for the most part, especially when you look at the ratio of old Pokemon running around compared to new ones (and by that I mean Johto Pokemon), as is the level distrubition over the course of the entire game, Gym Leader and Elite Four rematches nonwithstanding.
Sure, people say "but TWO REGIONS! 16 GYM LEADERS!!!" and I say... So what? There's virtually nothing to do in that second region except grab a few legendaries and go through those eight buildings of NPC battles once you do the Power Plant quest. If anything, Kanto being there ruined Johto and any chances it had of being a decent region. Johto had to be tiny to fit Kanto in, but then oops, nothing to do in Kanto but hunt down some new Pokemon that probably should have been in Johto, you know, in the first place.
Why are the new Pokemon that the game should be all about hiding in Kanto/on routes where there's only a 1% chance to find them/and more? I still haven't seen quite a few Johto Pokemon in my SS game, and I've got like, 220 hours on it. And sure, the Safari Zone fixed some of it, but then the Safari Zone requires lots of tinkering, plus for a while you'll be stuck facing Bellsprout/Rattata/Geodude for who knows how long until you're able to get what you want, plus by the time you unlock the Safari Zone, you're almost to Kanto anyway, so it's kind of a moot point.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad region, it has a lot of good points to it, and while a lot of the Pokemon are stupidly hard to get/not even in the region, others ARE there, even if they're overrun with Gen I Pokemon; and I'm not saying it's a bad game either, but I just fail to see what makes it the "best" other than nostalgia/it's the current game when we've got the other three regions out there (though Kanto was a close second on that poll) which don't have nearly as many problems as Johto does. I mean, I was all set to have a blast with HG/SS, ready to relive all the fun from my childhood, and while I did have a lot of fun playing it, it also made me want to stop, take it out, and play Platinum, Leaf Green, or Emerald a lot of the time too.
And that's what really grinds my gears.
I mean, is it because HG/SS is the new game? Is it because of nostalgia? Is it because it's popular to hate Gen III and, to a lesser extent, Gen IV? And now you might be thinking "Why isn't he saying 'Is it because it's the best?'" Well, I'll tell you why: It's... not. The routes are downright miniscule, very few places are memorable (though that's an opinion, I suppose), especially compared to Kanto or Hoenn as well as a good portion of Sinnoh, the Pokemon distribution is downright awful for the most part, especially when you look at the ratio of old Pokemon running around compared to new ones (and by that I mean Johto Pokemon), as is the level distrubition over the course of the entire game, Gym Leader and Elite Four rematches nonwithstanding.
Sure, people say "but TWO REGIONS! 16 GYM LEADERS!!!" and I say... So what? There's virtually nothing to do in that second region except grab a few legendaries and go through those eight buildings of NPC battles once you do the Power Plant quest. If anything, Kanto being there ruined Johto and any chances it had of being a decent region. Johto had to be tiny to fit Kanto in, but then oops, nothing to do in Kanto but hunt down some new Pokemon that probably should have been in Johto, you know, in the first place.
Why are the new Pokemon that the game should be all about hiding in Kanto/on routes where there's only a 1% chance to find them/and more? I still haven't seen quite a few Johto Pokemon in my SS game, and I've got like, 220 hours on it. And sure, the Safari Zone fixed some of it, but then the Safari Zone requires lots of tinkering, plus for a while you'll be stuck facing Bellsprout/Rattata/Geodude for who knows how long until you're able to get what you want, plus by the time you unlock the Safari Zone, you're almost to Kanto anyway, so it's kind of a moot point.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad region, it has a lot of good points to it, and while a lot of the Pokemon are stupidly hard to get/not even in the region, others ARE there, even if they're overrun with Gen I Pokemon; and I'm not saying it's a bad game either, but I just fail to see what makes it the "best" other than nostalgia/it's the current game when we've got the other three regions out there (though Kanto was a close second on that poll) which don't have nearly as many problems as Johto does. I mean, I was all set to have a blast with HG/SS, ready to relive all the fun from my childhood, and while I did have a lot of fun playing it, it also made me want to stop, take it out, and play Platinum, Leaf Green, or Emerald a lot of the time too.
And that's what really grinds my gears.